Army of Two: The 40th Day
Army of Two: The 40th Day is a third-person shooter video game that is developed by EA Montreal and published by Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable. It is the sequel to Army of Two. Army of Two: The 40th Day was released on January 12, 2010 in North America and January 15, 2010 in Europe. Army of Two: The 40th Day focuses on two-player cooperative play and employs a cover system. It features Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem as combatant partners who, with the assistance of their handler Alice Murray, must fight to survive and prevail over invading forces that have engulfed Shanghai, China in a devastating terrorist attack. A demo of the game has been released on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Gameplay More weapons and upgrades will be available, adding interchangeable upgrades between weapons, such as adding the barrel of one assault rifle to another. The "pimped" option returns with new camouflage schemes. Weapons can now also be obtained from downed enemies, increasing the player's arsenal to four weapons (up from three in Army of Two). Bullets will be able to penetrate weaker materials such as wood and sheet metal. Certain weapons can only be unlocked by morality moments, from both good and bad outcomes. Weapon parts can be obtained in the game levels for free, either by searching armored boxes (which are locked as soon as the enemy detects the player's presence) or simply exploring. New Heavy and Super Heavy enemy types can appear that wear thick armor and often require a special method of attack to defeat, such as shooting the gas canisters or grenade bags on that particular enemy. The Super Heavy enemies will carry weapons that cannot be purchased or found otherwise, such as a flamethrower and a Gatling gun. Co-op playbook Army of Two: The 40th Day expands on and refines the cooperative play featured in the original game. Unlike in the original where cooperative moments were primarily predetermined at particular intervals in the game, in this sequel, players can use co-op moves at any time. The playbook allows players to scan enemies prior to engaging them in order to set up particular team-based tactics.7 For example, players can mock surrender or setup simultaneous sniper shots. This is in addition to using aggro as a mechanic for tactically engaging enemies in the midst of combat. Aggro Aggro is a system that allows two players to tactically control the target of their enemy's attacks. Aggro is measured by a HUD element that displays which player the enemy characters are currently focusing on. By performing aggressive actions, such as firing one’s weapon, a player generates aggro and in turn causes enemies to focus more of their attention on that player. While one player has aggro the other is being ignored and as a result can then freely perform actions such as flanking.8 In Army of Two: The 40th Day, additional non-aggressive actions can affect aggro. For example, by performing a mock-surrender the enemy combatants will focus all of their attention (and aggro) on the player that is surrendering. Morality moments In Army of Two: The 40th Day players are forced to make moral decisions that affect the story of the game. At pre-determined points in the game players will be presented with a choice, for example whether they should steal weapons from a mall security armory or vacate the premises.9 The decision is not a vote between two players. but instead either player must decide while the other player is forced to accept the ramifications of that decisions regardless of what their preference was.10 The outcome and presentation of these morality moments takes the form of comic panels created by the popular artists Chris Bachalo and Jock. Dynamic & variety in gameplay EA Montreal has taken steps to ensure that the gameplay in Army of Two: The 40th Day is more dynamic than the original. This includes the environment, where some objects, such as wooden walls and crumbling mortar can now be penetrated by bullets.6 Likewise, there are now noncombatant NPCs that players will be forced to engage with. Players can simply ignore these civilian NPCs and allow them to be killed by combatants (or their own fire), or alternatively players can decide to deliberately rescue them. This sort of interaction can also occur in specific hostage scenarios where players must use coop moves to successfully overcome the situation. This is distinctly unlike the original Army of Two, where the enemies existed in the world solely to attack the player. There is also a lot more variety in characters, as there are more than twice as many different types of NPCs in Army of Two: The 40th Day, when compared to the original game. Multiplayer Multiplayer in Army of Two: The 40th Day has received significant changes since the original. These changes included region-free play12, client-server connections13 (as opposed to the original Army of Two’s peer-to-peer connections), and an increased number of participants (up to 10). Army of Two: The 40th Day maintains its focus on co-op play by requiring that players play in a partnership. Partners are a source for ammunition and are able to revive their fallen team mate. There are a total of four multiplayer game modes:12 * Co-op Deathmatch pits teams of two against other partnerships. * Control awards points to teams for capturing and defending randomly spawned points. * Warzone has players battle over various objectives. * Extraction is a game mode where teams of four fight waves of increasingly powerful enemies in order to clear the map for extraction. Story Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem begin Army of Two: The 40th Day a few years after the story of the original game ends as self-employed private military contractors who run, with the aid of Alice Murray, their own private company called Trans World Operations (TWO). They are engaged in a routine mission in Shanghai when things go very bad. A group of PMCs work together to attack the city, causing mayhem, destruction and threatening Rios and Salem’s survival.12 As executive producer Reid Schneider explains, “It's really more of a survival story, and about what happens to you when you're there." Rios and Salem have to work through this assault and try to get out of Shanghai alive. Weapons Weapon customization A predominant feature in the Army of Two series is the ability to customize weapons using money that is earned in-game. As the official Army of Two blog describes it, "it's like Lego with Guns … every part of your weapon is customizable and interchangeable with parts from other weapons.” 16 The changes to your weapons are not only for appearance, but also affect the performance and the amount of aggro that they generate. Some weapon characteristics that can be changed are handling, accuracy, ammunition capacity, and power. Mask customization Rios and Salem wear ballistic masks as part of their combat gear. By logging into the Army of Two: The 40th Day website, the player can create custom designs that appear on their masks in both campaign and multiplayer. This is accomplished by going to EA's Army of Two website to make a mask then uploading it to the player's EA account, in order to select it in-game. Weapon design contest Like for the original Army of Two, a community-oriented weapons design contest was run for Army of Two: The 40th Day. The contest challenged fans and enthusiasts from North America, Italy, France, and the UK to submit an image and brief description of a weapon that they designed. Two weapon designs (one from the North American and one from the European entries) were chosen as winners and will appear in the game for those players who have a saved game present on their game console from the original Army of Two. The winning entries were chosen on August 6, 2009. The winning entries were the AS-KR1 "The Ass Kicker" Rifle (submitted by Angryjoeshow1) and the "Grand Pinger" Sniper Launcher (submitted by Uberblargh Reception The game received generally positive reviews. It has a 73 on Metacritic. IGN awarded it 8.5, saying "The morality moments could have posed larger dilemmas and the AI still stumbles at times, but overall, The 40th Day is a great game to blast through."20 PSM3 Magazine UK awarded it 85%, saying "It's not the most progressive or technically impressive game on PS3, but the morality system, weapon customization and online co-op elevate it, and it's one of the best cover-to-cover shooters on PS3", while Playstation: The Official Magazine (US) awarded it 9 out of 10, saying "EA Montreal delivers a rich, over-the-top buddy experience that provides intelligent choices and a tough but fun Die Hard-like vibe that helps lighten the game's dark, gritty atmosphere." While Hardcore Gamer Magazine criticized the games minor improvements and similarity to the original, it noted that "the 40th day is more serious, lacking in the “what the hell” moments that peppered the first game."21 GameZone's Dakota Grabowski gave the game a 6/10, saying "Army of Two: The 40th Day is a testosterone-fueled cooperative shooter that improved on what the original set forth at doing – delivering an experience that is 99 percent aimed at males who enjoy drinking beer and playing cooperatively with their action-oriented buddies. What about the other 1 percent? Well … let’s say they must enjoy B-action movies, full of clichés, to gain any sense of gratification out of The 40th Day."22. The Lost Gamer gave the game a 7/10 claiming it is good co-operative fun but the sound lets it down Category:Games